In most faculty jobs, the department or college asks you to stop and document what you’ve been up to for the past year. In this episode, Jess and Sara talk about the institution’s goals for this annual review. We compare notes on what the evaluation packet looks like for our two programs, and we find that they are… quite different. Finally, Sara has the inside scoop on what happens after you turn in the annual review packet at her institution, and folks it is fascinating. Have a listen as...

In this episode Jess and Sara talk about managing all the manuscripts that they are working on. We talk about whether and how we keep track of those papers that are nearly done, partly done, or just an idea, and how that changes when you are a first author vs. a coauthor. We also talk about how we mentor students through the writing process, from idea through to finished draft. We’ll cover broad concepts and specific tools of the trade. Mentioned in this article: National Center for Faculty...

In this episode, Jess and Sara finally (Finally!) tackle the basic premise of behavior genetics. We talk about what kinds of research questions you can ask with genetically sensitive designs, describe what heritability is and what it’s not, and discuss just how it’s possible that scientists can use data from twin pairs to understand how much of the variance in some skill or behavior is due to genes and how much is attributable to the environment. A lot of that estimate depends on just how...

If you’ve ever had to deal with missing data, you’ve probably wished you could avoid it completely in the future. So why on earth would anyone design a study where data are missing on purpose? When you set up a project, there are actually several advantages to selecting a subset of people to skip assessments, items, or waves on purpose. Jess and Sara describe those designs here, and just what the advantages are, as well as fun future directions for one specific subtype of these designs: The...

Why do you write a grant? To get money to do some sort of project of course! But how do you figure out how much money you need? Through a grant budget! But what goes into a grant budget? All kinds of things that you might expect (e.g., cost of the materials you need) and some things that you maybe don’t (e.g., Indirect costs). How can I find out what those budget-y things are and what they mean? You’re in luck, friend. That’s what Jess and Sara talk about for this whole episode! But Jess, why...

Preregistration is writing down your idea for how you plan to collect and analyze your data _before_ you actually start collecting or analyzing it. In this episode, Jess and Sara talk about the many benefits of preregistration, the differences between preregistration and registered reports, describe their experiences with it, discuss some resources, and (hopefully) put to rest some fears about the practice that you might have. Some resources we mention in this episode: Sara’s blog post on...

Trajectory of heritability to the heritability of trajectories? Measuring growth in skills and abilities over time is practically (maybe literally!) synonymous with developmental science. In this episode, Jess and Sara talk about how static measurements of a skill can have different variance, and different predictors, from growth in that skill. After a general discussion, we dive into how that plays into estimates of heritability, and the difference between the trajectory of heritability and...

In this episode, Jess and Sara talk about what it’s like to serve on an academic search committee. To those of you who are about to serve on a committee (maybe for the first time), we will take you through the whole process from writing the call to making the offer. Or those of you on the market this year, peek behind the curtain. Every search is different! Things happen very differently from university to university, and even from search to search. We want this overview to give you, the...

In this episode, Jess asks Sara to talk about LDBase, the data repository she has been building designed specifically to hold developmental science data. We discuss what LDbase is, what motivated her and her colleagues to start building it, what makes it unique, and how it works. Sara even describes several excellent resources you can find on the website that make data sharing easier. Go see it for yourself at www.LDBase.org All about integrative data analysis: Curran, P. J., & Hussong,...

You may have noticed that the cycle of academic publishing is pretty broken. Scientists give their research papers to academic journals for free, then the journal puts that work behind a paywall. Sometimes institutions will pay for a package of subscriptions to these journals, often costing millions of dollars. Jess and Sara talk about this cycle, and how institutions, journals, and individuals have started to push back against it. On ArXiv: https://xkcd.com/2085/ About UC’s exit from that...

In this episode Jess and Sara talk about the role of methodologist in developmental science, and how it’s different from a statistician. A methodologist is a content expert and a collaborator like any other, and we do our best work when we’re involved right from the initial planning stages of a project. Why? Because nearly every decision made in a research project can have implications for statistical conclusions, and methodologists are the collaborators who keep this in mind. Think you might...

Well the spring 2021 semester is over, and - what is this feeling? We’re a little (a lot) overwhelmed. Jess and Sara describe their experiences, and theorize a bit about why it might be particularly bad right now. Is the pandemic over here in the US? What does that mean for our jobs? That feeling of one day more can sometimes be too much. We end by suggesting, maybe, we all need a break, and to give ourselves, and our colleagues, some grace. Ed Yong’s article about the “end” of the pandemic...